Dreams
by Red Castellan
Summary: A life well lived is when you live your dreams... Even in the face of nightmares. Based on the prompt given by CelticGames4


This is her first day of shoot, and she's excited for it.

Sure, she's not happy about the amount of makeup she's required to wear, or the tight dress, but her life long dream is about to realise, and these are small discomforts, not worth paying attention to. The set is rather run down, possibly because it's make-shift; the shooting location changes often, but Anya doesn't care. She's here now, about to live her dreams.

She is here, allowed to live her dream because she has killed three innocent people. Anya is only seventeen, a fresh victor, and possibly 'fresh meat', as she's heard other victors say, but she doesn't care for their opinion. To her, only the opinion of Charles, mentor in the Games and best friend, matters, and she knows he's happy for her.

The director, Eroica Luvguard, is approaching her, and Anya smiles brightly. The woman talk about the movie, the behaviour Anya is supposed to keep and the general rules everyone has to follow, and the girl is attentive. She's not to bring her family or friends to the sets, she's mostly going to have 12-hour shift and she's not going to get any holiday for the next fifty days, but these terms don't bother her. She's only excited to work in her first movie, knowing that her charm as a victor will draw the audiences to the theatres.

And then, Eroica starts telling her about the first scene that she's going to shoot, the scene that will be the first step towards fulfilling her dreams.

"Your character, Lucinda, and her friend Macbeth, will be having an argument regarding something horrible Macbeth has done. So you have to be loud and yell hard at him. I'll give you the script in a while, but you can always improvise in addition to that."

"Sure, ma'am, thank you."

Anya smiles as Eroica struts away. The victor knows that the details she's been given are vague, but they have, nonetheless, triggered a memory, a memory Anya wants to erase.

_The arena was sweltering, the size of the maze was decreasing every day with every death. It was the eighth day now, and only six tributes remained. Anya hadn't had a kill till now, and yet Charles had arranged for sponsor gifts, that also included a dagger. Anya didn't know how Charles managed it; she'd not done anything other than to hide with her District Partner, Renault. And right now... She was hiding her sponsor gifts from her partner. She didn't want to be bad, but she was no fool either. She needed her supplies to survive._

_Well, that didn't work for long._

_Renault had found out, and was raging about it, yelling at her, abusing her, and Anya knew he was right. She stood there, listening to the abuse, to the many horrible things he said, calling her selfish, a thief, an unreliable witch, but Anya stayed quiet. It was when Renault slapped her in anger that she snapped._

_Anya didn't know what had happened. All she knew that she was furious, and she was going to teach this man a lesson, and soon her dagger was in her hand and then it was going into his abdomen..._

Anya still remembers the look of shock and betrayal on Renault's face. She has done something that is unforgivable, murdering not only her ally but also her District Partner, it being her first kill. Tears threaten to fall, but Anya knows she's wearing heavy makeup, and she doesn't want to mess up anything on her first day.

The shoot starts after an hour; the actor playing Macbeth isn't here yet as he's a super star. Anya considers herself lucky to get a break with someone who is already so big in the movie industry, who would have imagined such a future for her? She herself hasn't thought about it much until this point, for thinking about futures is painful too. Anya can't help but remember little Julia. It had been an eventful day...

_She was in the final three now, crying often to herself, but still fighting. She couldn't believe she had killed Renault. What would District Six think of her? What would Charles do now? Not that sponsors could do much, she was in the final three already, chased out of the maze to a valley of sorts by large hound made of actual fire. She just knew others would be coming soon, and she didn't know whether she was ready to take another life, _two _other lives, Renault already haunted her._

_And then she saw it, twelve-year-old Julia being ushered there by mutant birds, and the little girl looked fearfully at Anya, who was holding a dagger. Julia stood close to the chasm, afraid to come close, and Anya lowered her knife, stiffing it into her jacket that was a part of her arena uniform._

"_Hey Julia," she said kindly, smiling sweetly, "I think the two of us should team up against Augusta. We can beat her easily then."_

_And Julia, Julia was innocent. And Anya had, since before that, been an amazing actress. And so the child agreed, lowering her guard as a very friendly Anya approached her, and she didn't even realise when her throat had been slit..._

The victor from the Seventy-First Games sighs shakily, her body trembles, as she remembers Julia, poor innocent Julia. Julia must have had dreams too, aspirations, a future. Anya has taken that away from her. The girl understands that she did what she did to survive, but the world doesn't. Anya doesn't blame it though, she's been judgemental before, when she was naive and innocent.

Innocent... Who's innocent in this country? Anya fights the urge to let out a mirthless laugh as she sits down at a table, the script in her hands. She has an hour to rehearse the lines that she has to perform, and she stares blankly at the tablet. Her last opponent had not been innocent, she had been working hard to achieve her dreams, even if it was as weird as winning the Games. Anya can't relate to Augusta, but she recalls clearly how formidable Augusta was.

_Anya knew she was doomed._

_The brute from Two had beaten her to a pulp, and was honestly toying with her. Her whole body ached, and cried for mercy as Augusta's foot connected with her side, making her cry out as she rolled over with the force, slowly nearing the chasm. Augusta had a mad gleam in her eyes that Anya didn't like, and she was sure the other girl wouldn't give her an easy death, making her cry. After all that she had done, after the _monster _that she'd become, she'd just die like this? Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, both due to sadness and pain, and she shuddered. Augusta kicked her in the gut and she coughed, blood spurting out of her mouth as the other girl smirked._

_Anya was close to the chasm now and she knew she was done for. Her heart though, could not accept it, and even as Augusta decided to kick her one final time, Anya entangled her legs with Augusta's, tripping her, and then kicked her with all she had, pushing her into the chasm. And that was it... She was a victor. Anya didn't hear the announcements though, for she had passed out due to her injuries. _

She blinks twice, and realises that her eyes are bleak. Yes, Augusta must have been brainwashed to be a Career, but she had a dream, and Anya had ruined it. The victor still has nightmares but she knows she has to act as if she's okay, as if nothing affects her, and she's a terrific actress. Pretending to be fine is easy for her.

But her tears have ruined her makeup, which she'll have to fix now. Well, she still has an hour, somebody else can read the script to her as the stylist works. So she gets up and walks towards her dressing room. She has to look perfect, just like always. She is a perfect victor, having robbed many people off their lives, but she's living her dream, and that's all that matters to her.

**Hi guys! So this is a little piece focusing on Anya Ford, Victor of Seventy-First Games, and this is done for a prompt 'Dreams' given by CelticGames4 on the forum SYOT Alliance. You guys should check out Celtic as well as the forum. Let me know what you think! I've been wanting to write a piece on her since a long time, since she's a supporting character in my main verse, and I hope this is good. This is also my first time writing in present tense, so that's something. Thanks for reading!**

**Have a great day! **


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